MetLife Investment Management LLC Sells 614 Shares of News Corporation $NWS

MetLife Investment Management LLC lowered its holdings in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWS) by 2.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 29,046 shares of the company’s stock after selling 614 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in News were worth $882,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of News by 75.3% in the first quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 414 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of News by 9.6% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,837 shares of the company’s stock valued at $147,000 after purchasing an additional 425 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in News by 20.3% in the 1st quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 3,210 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its stake in News by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,578 shares of the company’s stock worth $259,000 after purchasing an additional 615 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in News by 14.9% in the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 6,711 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,000 after purchasing an additional 869 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 14.63% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Zacks Research upgraded shares of News to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, News presently has an average rating of “Buy”.

News Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of News stock opened at $33.40 on Friday. News Corporation has a 1 year low of $26.25 and a 1 year high of $35.58. The firm has a market cap of $18.87 billion, a PE ratio of 16.06 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.72. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.35.

News (NASDAQ:NWS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.09 billion. News had a net margin of 13.21% and a return on equity of 5.66%. Analysts expect that News Corporation will post 1.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 10th. This represents a dividend yield of 60.0%. News’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.62%.

News Company Profile

News Corporation, a media and information services company, creates and distributes authoritative and engaging content, and other products and services for consumers and businesses worldwide. It operates through six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other.